"Ready for your big moment?" Hunter said, holding out a hand.
"You were signed up," I told her.
"Come on, Meg, do it for the Harrogate Trust." Hunter's smile was soft.
"Fine," Meg said, patting her hair into place. It had been pinned to look like she had a short bob. "Just this once. Oh, and I'm driving the car." She got behind the wheel and blared the horn. Hunter hung out the window and tossed chocolate coins out to the crowd.
"Up next, we have another Svensson," Mayor Barry boomed over the sound system. "Garrett and Penny as the Nazgûl and Princess Arwen." Since the characters interacted during the chase scene, Penny sent my horse down the street first, and I followed a few paces behind. The crowd loved it.
"We're so going to win," Penny said at the end of the parade route. "Though, I have to admit, even though I knew it was you in the costume, it still was a little creepy to have a faceless demon bearing down on me."
After the parade was over, we assembled back at the grandstand. Two of the dwarfs were crying, and the witch and the lizard looked a little tipsy.
"I thought you confiscated all the alcohol," Hunter said to Meg. She scowled at him. So much for pushing them back together.
"All the votes are in," Mayor Barry said. "The winner is… Snow White!"
"Yay!" Hazel cheered, jumping around with my little brothers in a circle.
"Geez. Pimping our little brothers out for a cheap win," I said to Archer.
"Hey, I had to dye my hair. I don't think this is ever going to come out!" Archer retorted as the photographer lined them up to snap pictures.
"Wow, this is amazing!" Sebastian said. "What a great event!"
"It's not over!" Penny called. "Time forMacbeth."
65
Penny
"This is going to be so much fun!" I said, feeling giddy when we were backstage. We didn’t have a real theater; it was more of a temporary structure. Garrett and I were just off to the side behind a wall. I peered out to look at the crowd. Several of Garrett's brothers saw me and waved.
The sun had already set, and several lights illuminated the stage. In Shakespeare’s time, theater sets had been fairly minimal. The Harrogate community-theater rendition ofMacbethincluded the stage, the actors, the elaborate costumes, and a handful of props. Among the crowd, there were several carts that sold meat pies, cider, ales, and other semihistorically accurate snack foods.
"Places!" Edna hissed. She was a judge experienced in wrangling lawyers in her courtroom, and her voice tended to carry. I noticed several people in the audience sat up straighter.
The lights began to dim, and Ida, Dottie, and Bettina went out to the stage. Remy helped them carry out the cauldron.
Edna banged on a drum that sounded like thunder. The lights went all the way down, and the dry ice in the cauldron smoked, hissed, and popped. Ida cackled and said, "When shall we three meet again?"
The play had begun.Macbethhad always been one of my favorite plays. Nothing could beat spooky witches, crazy prophesies, visions, blood, and gore. It was always a crowd-pleaser.
When Garrett and I were onstage together, I felt the electricity between us. I realized I wanted nothing more than for this to be our life. Okay, not plotting to murder our best friends and going crazy, but the fall festival, being a team, his family, our weird friends, the town. It felt like home, like this was the place I belonged, and Garrett was the man I was supposed to experience it all with.
At the end of the play, we all took our bows.
"Thank you all for a wonderful Halloween celebration," Edna called out. "We’ll see you out trick-or-treating next week."
"Don’t tell me you didn’t have fun," I said to Garrett as he pulled off the chain-mail costume.
"It was sort of fun." He leaned in and kissed me. "I’m so glad I met you."
"I’m glad I met you too."
We went back to his family hand in hand.
"I guess I should head out," Sebastian said, Alfie in his arms. "The fall festival was really cool. It’s so great that the whole town comes out, and all the tourists."
